The Awakening Read Free Page B

you. So what’s your name?”
      Ryan realized he didn’t know, but to save face he said the first name that came to mind. “Gabriel. Gabriel Hollingsworth.”
      “Well then Gabriel, better come with me before you freeze to death.”
       Ryan nodded and followed Bentley. When he reached the car, Ryan slumped inside, and passed out.
           Ryan didn’t know that he had amnesia.
       And neither did Bentley.                                 
         When Bentley arrived home, much to his surprize, his sister Eva had returned from her trip and when she saw them she came barrelling out of the house. She took one look at Ryan and immediately came to help.
   “Good Lord what happened?”
     “He had an accident.”
    “He sure did. He’s lucky to be alive by the looks of him.”
        “Found him on the side of the road, his car up in flames about a mile away. “Think he needs to see a doctor.”
    Eva frowned. “Are you okay, Bentley?”
   “I’m fine. Can you help me get him into the house?”
    Eva stepped closer. “Of course. What’s his name?” She helped steady Ryan, then slowly walked up the steps, his one harm around Eva’s neck, the other around Bentley. “What a day this has been.”
       “No kidding. Glad you’re home,” Bentley said closing the front door. “Not sure what his name is.” Bentley grunted, then sat down.
    “I’ll call Doctor Brown.”
    “Don’t need no doctor,” Ryan huffed.
     Bentley stared at Ryan as he sat on the sofa rubbing his forehead, looking dazed. Bentley didn’t know him at all, seemed very different from the Ryan fellow he’d meet earlier on in the day.
         “What’s the matter?” Ryan grunted, “ain’t you ever seen an accident before? Hell, I’ve been in plenty of accidents and I can tell ya…I don’t need no doctor.” He rose and walked a perfectly straight line over to the living room window and gazed outside. “I’ll be going now,” he said adamantly.
      Bentley didn’t know what to make of things. He observed him closely and took note of the fact his fifty dollars was gone, and, well, his car was missing too. Gabriel didn’t sound like Ryan, didn’t act like him either. So where was Ryan? It was the strangest thing.
    “Where you going in this weather? I mean, you’re without a car, and that jacket you’re wearing doesn’t look very warm. Why not stay here for a while? Least till the cold weather lets up.”
     Bentley glanced over at Eva who had hung her coat on a hook in the dining room. “We’re about to have lunch. Why not stay for a warm, home-cooked meal?”
    “Guess I could,” Ryan agreed.
    And so Ryan stayed. He ate lunch and ended up living with Bentley Quad.
     
     

                      
     
     
    Chapter 4
     
     
     
         Isaac Cooper, a mental patient, couldn’t think of a single time in his life when a day promised to be more awkward. Today, as he ran like the wind, he happened to stumble across a farmhouse.
     Years back, he’d been speeding and, inebriated collided into a couple, killing them instantly. He was sentenced and placed in a mental institution. After five years, somehow, he’d managed to wander out of the hospital. He’d been hiding, half frozen to death, when to his delight he discovered the farm. Hurrying across the snow in nothing but street clothes and sneakers, he raced inside the barn in order to get warm.
         Once inside, his eyes widened at the sight of fruit. Starving, it didn’t matter that he had no right. Nothing mattered, except Isaac.
    For a moment he assumed he was merely having another one of his episodes of delusion. He was used to them.
         From a ways away, he heard the melodious sounds of a woman calling out, “Ryan.”
        He saw a pair of